Warsaw Flight/ L’avion à destination de Varsovie

Photo: Personnel of No. 168 (Heavy Transport) Squadron load penicillin into a Fortress aircraft at Rockcliffe, November 1945. Photo taken by RCAF photographer just prior to the penicillin mission flown by Air Commodore John Plant to Warsaw, at the urgent request of the United Polish Relief Fund of Canada. The B-17 Flying Fortress had been designed as a bomber and most carried a pair of .50-cal machine guns in a nose turret. No.168 (HT) Squadron modified the nose of their Fortresses, removing guns to substitute a streamlined configuration and, in this instance, a hinged cargo entry port. [Library and Archives Canada, RG24 Department of National Defence, RCAF Photo Library neg. PL-37265.]